
The Emerson Brothers: A Fraternal Biography in Letters is a narrative and epistolary biography drawn from the unpublished lifelong correspondence exchanged among four brothers: Charles Chauncy, Edward Bliss, Ralph Waldo, and William Emerson. This is an extensive correspondence, for not counting Waldo's previously published letters, there are 768 letters exchanged among the brothers and an additional 483 unpublished letters from the brothers to their aunt Mary Moody Emerson, mother Ruth Haskins Emerson, and Charles' fiancée Elizabeth Hoar, among others. While lesser figures might have faltered under the burden of having been born an Emerson, with social, political, and ecclesiastic roots extending back to the first century of New England settlement, the brothers' letters reveal that all were invigorated by a shared sense of origin and aspired to make a significant reputation for themselves. Across six richly developed chapters, the signal events and friendships that shaped the Emerson brothers' lives are strung together to reveal a remarkable family culture. For the first time, The Emerson Brothers treats the illustrious history of the Emerson family in America as a foreshadowing of expectations the brothers inherited; defines the extent of Waldo's debt to William for his encounter with German Biblical Criticism; develops Charles' and Edward's incredibly promising but ultimately tragic lives; examines the profound emotional and intellectual impact of Aunt Mary on the younger Emersons; considers the three-year courtship between Charles and Elizabeth Hoar in the context of Waldo's own marriages; and studies the brothers' preoccupation with financial security for "the family" (revealing, too, that finances were at least as powerful a motivation behind Waldo's 1832 resignation from Boston's Second Church as were the death of his first wife and his religious doubts). This biography approaches Waldo's inner life in a way that makes him a figure to imagine personally by por
This work investigates the collective identity and individual trajectories of the four Emerson brothers by analyzing their extensive, largely unpublished correspondence. Authors Joel Myerson and Ronald A. Bosco, both established scholars of American literature and the Transcendentalist movement, utilize these primary source letters to construct a biographical framework that contextualizes Ralph Waldo Emerson's life within the broader dynamics of his family's intellectual and emotional development.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars and historians recognize this volume as a significant contribution to the study of the Emerson family, particularly for its meticulous use of previously unpublished archival material. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which serves as a specialized resource for those interested in the private lives and correspondence of 19th-century American intellectuals.
Page Count:
442
Publication Date:
2005-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
019028627X
ISBN-13:
9780190286279
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